Wales

We spent some time in Wales while Matthew has been away, Alex requested a sandy beach (our beach near us is shingle) so we went to Tenby on the Pembrokeshire coast for the day. It's a lovely old, walled town overlooking stretches of sandy beach. The weather wasn't brilliant but we had a good time.

2 men in a boat

Yet another weekend of gorgeous weather so Andrew, Alex and I walked down to the beach, canoe and all. (Matthew had been at a sleepover the night before, was tired and grumpy so stayed at home). We all had a lovely swim then Andrew and Alex went for a paddle.

Sunny days

What more is there to do on a hot summer's day than to lie on a boogie board on a calm, warm sea? (Apologies for the quality of the picture)

Potatoes and sunshine.

This is our first attempt at growing potatoes, was very exciting digging them up as there seemed to be a never ending supply of them in the soil - they tasted great too!

We've had a week of glorious weather so we bought an inflatable pool for the boys, they had long outgrown the paddling pool. It's great for them to cool off when they get home from school.

Weekend in Wales

Last weekend was spent in Wales visiting Andrew's mom. The weather was lovely so the boys spent the day doing jobs in Grandma's garden. Matthew was in charge of cutting the very long lawn while Alex cleared leaves out of the pond. The pond was full of tadpoles so Alex had lots of fun catching them in a bucket ( he did put them all back).

Seeing as this was the last time Matthew would be in Wales before he comes to C.T. we arranged a surprise birthday party lunch for him, Gordon and Ceri came up for the day as well. It was a complete surprise for Matthew, I think he was quite pleased!

We also spent some time at a beautiful rocky river nearby, both boys always ask to go there when we're in Wales and they spend ages climbing over the rocks, seeing how far out into the river they can go and building dams.

Matthew goes to France

About 25 children from Matthew's year group were chosen to go on a day trip to France to visit a French school. It was a cool, windy day so the ferry crossing was very rough. After a quick visit to Calais, they went for lunch at the school and then spent the afternoon there, survived another rough crossing back before getting home late that evening. He said he enjoyed the day. These pictures were,I believe, taken in Calais.

Sunny May

We've had a spell of lovely warm weather, hopefully this is the beginning of summer and not the 2 week summer we so often have. Every year the weather people tell us we're in for a scorcher, hottest summer on record, but mostly we just end up with a washout. I think they do it to try cheer the nation up! This morning Matthew and Andrew went for a long bike ride along the coast, I stayed home with Alex because he twisted his ankle badly on the trampoline yesterday and can't walk. Then we had a lovely chicken and sausage braai and spent the afternoon relaxing in the sun in the garden.

A visit to London

Last weekend we went to London for the day, it was a lovely sunny day so we walked from Victoria train station to Hyde park where we sat on the grass, ate our picnic lunch and watched the people go by. It was such a lovely day that we hired a peddalow boat and peddled on the Serpentine for 30mins. Then we walked to the nearby Science museum, I had booked tickets for the Imax theatre to see Hubble 3D, a film about the latest shuttle mission to replace some of the telescope parts. It was fantastic, the closest I'll ever come to doing a space walk! The 3D effect on such a massive screen is quite incredible. Alex kept reaching out trying to grab stars as we were flying through space.The only drawback are the huge glasses you have to wear, as you can see in the picture! After the film we walked back through Hyde park to Victoria station, we passed through a small square called Springbok Square where we found these beautiful sculptures of animals that Alex is posing with. We're very lucky to be only a 90min train journey from London, to be able to see the sights, the hustle and bustle, and then be able to return to the peace and quiet of our little town.

Easter holidays

The boys and I met up with some friends at Howletts wild animal park - they don't call them zoos anymore! I don't like the places, I would much prefer to see animals in their natural environment but I do suppose they play their role in animal conservation. They have a very large group of gorillas and I know they have very successful at breeding and reintroducing family groups into Central Africa. They also have various other animals including a big herd of African elephants, tigers and these rhino which the boys were able to get very close to, beautiful animals.

10 pin bowling

Over the Easter weekend we went to Wales to visit Andrew's mom for a few days, then we went to Cardiff to visit his brother and girlfriend. We went 10 pin bowling, Matthew beat us all!

Welcome

Having been inspired by Mandy's blog, we have set up our own as a way to keep in touch with family and friends. We hope it will give you some insight into our life here in UK and we hope you enjoy seeing some of the things we get up to.